The Dirty Dozen (+1)

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Sunday September 25, 2005 · 9:03 AM PDT

2005/09/25 · 09:03

With so many to choose from and so much corruption, how can anyone come up with just a dozen? Well, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has given it a try and even they had to go with a baker's dozen.

Tomorrow, CREW will release its list of "the 13 most corrupt members of Congress." CREW's list is mostly dedicated to more recent incidents of corrupt behavior and they leave off their nemesis, Tom Delay for reasons not made clear in their pre-announcement to the media.

The LA Times gives us a look at CREW's Dirty Dozen (+1). Read More

CA-50 Cunningham's Friends Keep Getting Raided

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Saturday September 24, 2005 · 7:48 AM PDT

2005/09/24 · 07:48

If you have every done business with Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, I have a bit of advice for you: Don't lock your doors. The feds will just kick them in.

Thursday, federal agents (FBI, IRS, DCIS) raided the home and offices of another of Duke's "business partners",Thomas Kontogiannis. If you have your scandal scorecard handy you will see that Kontogiannis is the guy who bought Cunningham's yacht, the Kelly C, for a price that was perhaps as much as three times the value of the boat. Ultimately, half a million of that money went to pay off a loan, arranged by Kontogiannis through a family mortgage business, for Cunningham's Rancho Santa Fe mansion. Yes, the same mansion upon which the Feds have placed a lien contending that it was purchased in part with the proceeds from a $700,000 bribe paid Cunningham by another businessman, whose home and office were raided in July 1st. Read More

CA-50 Support Francine Busby

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Tuesday September 20, 2005 · 7:14 PM PDT

2005/09/20 · 19:14

You can help Democrat Francine Busby in her campaign to represent the people of California's 50th Congressional District. Busby is actively running for the seat currently held by Republican Corruption Poster Boy Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Duke is resigning at the end of this term to focus on staying out of jail and Busby is in a great position in this traditionally Republican district.

CA-50 covers much of North San Diego County. The district is moderate and polls show that when voters hear Busby's message they respond positively.

There are about a dozen potential Republican challengers for this seat. So far the key announced challengers include Howard Kaloogian of Move American Forward fame and Bill Morrow, who recently held an anti-immigration rally featuring Representative Tom Tancredo and Minuteman Project Founder, Jim Gilchrist.

Busby needs your help. She is a finalist for funding by the Democracy for America project.

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Sunday September 18, 2005 · 1:54 PM PDT

2005/09/18 · 13:54

The patronage cash machine has been fired up in Washington and is already spewing American taxpayer's dollars along the Gulf Coast. It is hardly a surprise that former FEMA head Joe Allbaugh, arrived in Louisiana before recently resigned FEMA head Michael Brown. Allbaugh career since he left FEMA is as a rainmaker for companies and individuals seeking government contracts. His most recent relevant experience was helping waste billions of American dollars in Iraq. And, as a side business, both he and his wife are registered lobbyist for KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton.

In a Newsweek article, Howard Fineman, describes George Bush's desperate attempt to buy back his wasted political influence. Where once a few hundred million dollars would have protected New Orleans from flood, Bush now proposes to spend a hundred billion or more.

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Thursday September 15, 2005 · 9:34 PM PDT

2005/09/15 · 21:34

While President Small Bladder sets his $200 billion corporate relief package in motion along the Gulf Coast, I am reminded that the United States has problems on a global scale unprecidented in our history.

We have few allies and even fewer friends. Our impotence in both Iraq and New Orleans gives far more aid and comfort to our enemies than all the nation's liberals, gays and Cindy Sheehan combined.

More critically, we are failing on a global basis in dealing with other nations. In South America we have managed to align ourselves with the shadowy forces working to topple a popular and democratically elected president. And, when that doesn't work out so well, a major supporter of President Bush suggests that we just off the son of a bitch and get it over with.

In Asia, we have become a non-entity. Our priorities matter little as China's economic acendency eclipses our influence.

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When Political Whores Run Things

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Monday September 05, 2005 · 10:22 AM PDT

2005/09/05 · 10:22

Early public opinion polls show the public pretty much evenly divided over the President's handling of the hurricane crisis. A widely quoted Rasmussen poll done on September 2-3 has the president's positives well above the negatives by a 53% to 45% split. It overlaps the timing of a Washington Post poll that showed public perception be be slightly less favorable. In the WaPo poll 47% disapproved of Bush's handling of the crisis, compared to 46% who approved.

Hardly much of a crisis bounce for the President, but not uniform condemnation either.

However, what has to be of concern to Karl Rove and his crew is the fact that since becoming involved in the crisis, the President's performance approval has been declining. Read More

Duke Cunningham - Prince of Pork

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Wednesday August 31, 2005 · 8:37 AM PDT

2005/08/31 · 08:37

More revelations today concerned Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham - the Prince of Pork.

The San Diego Union Tribune delves into the details of the process by which Cunningham was able to "earmark" specific spending to insure that his major contributors such as MZM Inc. and ACDS Inc. were guaranteed lucrative government contracts. Read More

Spend the Night With Arnold - Government For Sale

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Tuesday August 30, 2005 · 9:12 AM PDT

2005/08/30 · 09:12

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pulling out all the stops to raise money so that he can tout his phony-baloney ballot measures in a special November election.

So far Schwarzenegger has raised close to $30 million this year, while he was supposed to be running the government of the state. In his most recent cross-country foray, Arnold scored $5 million and he is looking forward to weeks of frantic fund raising before November.

Despite Arnold's attempts to connect with everyday Californians, he is obviously far more comfortable chatting up the rich and smoozing with the famous. The Sacramento Bee (subscription) reports on Arnold's recent activities and plans.

More below the fold. Read More

ID - Stupid Is, As Stupid Does

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Monday August 29, 2005 · 4:40 PM PDT

2005/08/29 · 16:40

Recently three prominent Republicans stepped forward and endorsed the teaching of the "notion" of intelligent design as if it were the scientific equivalent of the theory of evolution.

President George Bush and Republican Senators, Bill Frist and John McCain all contend that it is the best interest of our children that they be exposed to different scientific concepts and ideas. Of course The Onion caught the idiocy of the Republican position. (And, we have to call it the Republican position, because the political promotion of intelligent design as science is almost wholly a Republican endeavor.)

"As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling."

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Sunday August 28, 2005 · 5:48 PM PDT

2005/08/28 · 17:48

San Diego has billed itself as "America's Finest City" for decades. Yet, today San Diego stands on the brink of bankruptcy. Twenty-five years of Republican stewardship have created a city that is broke and broken, needing over a billion dollar to remain solvent and billions more to repair its crumbling infrastructure.

Decades of mismanagement by acolytes of the Reagan Revolution have left San Diego with the new reputation as "America's Cheapest City."

The San Diego Union Tribune chronicles the financial collapse of America's eighth largest city in a feature report in its Sunday edition.

"We've had a culture in this town for years of, 'Don't tax me,' " said Steve Erie, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego. "It's one of the things that got us in this mess. Taxes are the third rail of recent San Diego politics. Touch it and you're dead, yet someone has got to step on the tracks."

Read More

Cunningham Resignation Watch - Win A T-Shirt

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Saturday August 27, 2005 · 9:46 AM PDT

2005/08/27 · 09:46

Words Have Power has a new feature for those who wish to play a game of chance. Pick the Day of Duke's Demise and win a Pseudo Revolution T-shirt. Of course, we are talking about the day that Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham announces his resignation from Congress, not something more sinister.

All you have to do to enter is add a comment to this post, or at the WHP site, with your estimate as to the date and time when Cunningham will announce that he is resigning his position as the Representative for the 50th District in California. Both date and time must be noted to win and the time must be Pacific Daylight or Pacific Standard time, depending upon the date you select.

Also, you can help project the over/under for Duke's departure. Right now it is pegged at 10/40 - meaning that Duke will not resign within the next 10 days, but he will resign within 40 days.

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CA-50 "Cunningham Demanded... Bribe"

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Thursday August 25, 2005 · 8:11 PM PDT

2005/08/25 · 20:11

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego today filed court papers containing the following allegation concerning Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham:

"...Cunningham 'demanded and received' a bribe from a Pentagon contractor who paid 'an amount far greater' than market value for the congressman's Del Mar Heights home in 2003..."

The legal papers documenting these charges we originally filed in secret as part of an action by the U.S. Attorney's Office to insure that the federal government had a say in any potential sale of the Rancho Santa Fe home that Cunningham purchased with the money that the feds contend he received as a bribe for Mitchell Wade of MZM Inc.

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The Dirty Dozen (+1)

CA-50 Cunningham's Friends Keep Getting Raided

CA-50 Support Francine Busby

Bush Has A Plan

What About China?

When Political Whores Run Things

Duke Cunningham - Prince of Pork

Spend the Night With Arnold - Government For Sale

ID - Stupid Is, As Stupid Does

Republicans Ruin America's Finest City

Cunningham Resignation Watch - Win A T-Shirt

CA-50 "Cunningham Demanded... Bribe"